Farmworker Clash Pits Union Access, Property Rights at Top Court
- Growers say their rights violated by union access to premises
- Case challenges California regulation that dates to Chavez era
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For almost a half century, labor organizers in California have had a unusual right: Under a state regulation, they can walk onto the premises of an agricultural business and recruit workers to join a union.
The regulation is now before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that critics are looking to turn into a blockbuster decision strengthening property rights and curbing regulatory power. The court will hear arguments Monday on a constitutional challenge to a 1975 rule that grew out of the efforts of Cesar Chavez to give farm workers collective bargaining rights.